Rich By Blood, Common By Nature
by Practically Venomous
Summary: I never thought this would happen.Maybe that's why it's a tragedy.There goes my common lifestyle, here comes the overpriced junk.How could I possibly fit into their world?I can't.Will my cousin and his rich friends help,or just make things harder for me?
1. 1: What's a Commoner Doing Here?

Okay, so this is my first attempt at fan-fiction, so any advice is welcome! This first one is basically just explaining everything. So enjoy! :)

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I walked down the empty hallway, trying to figure out the hand-drawn map I was staring at. I had never been good at directions, and the fact that I've been at this huge school for less than a day didn't help anything. Everything here looks so huge and expensive! I don't get it. Why do they need this extravagant of a high school? I turned down the next hallway and looked back to the map. I gave an exasperated sigh. Why couldn't he put landmarks on this map? _The North Wing _and _the South _Wing scribbled on the piece of paper doesn't help if you don't know which way's north. Why did I have to go to an _academy_? I would've been perfectly fine going to a normal high school. But, 'Commoners go to public schools; and you aren't common.' Maybe I want to be common! Maybe I don't' want to be a rich person! Here, being rich is the norm; so much for being uncommon. I turned back down another hallway and took a left before I stopped in front of a set of heavy double-doors. "Music Room 3" the sign read. I sighed. "This is it." I whispered as I pushed down on the golden handle.

I was amazed to see what was behind the door. It was the Host Club. There were a lot of girls sitting around drinking tea, and being entertained by some very hot guys. It was sort of ridiculous, if you ask me. I walked in and ran into a very tall guy. "Oh, sorry!" I mumbled apologetically.

He nodded. "Are you looking for someone?" He asked in a deep and quiet voice.

"Uh, yeah. Is Kyoya Ohtori here?" I asked with a very skeptical voice. There was no way Kyoya would be somewhere like this.

A short, blond haired boy ran up to us. "You're looking for Kyo-chan?!" He said in a cute voice, his eyes alight with excitement. I nodded. "I'll get him!" The boy skipped off and returned less than a minute later with Kyoya.

"Kyoya?!" I said rather loudly.

"Chiyo, I see you found your way." He said, pushing up his glasses.

"Yeah, your map didn't help much though. I had to ask directions about four times!"

"Really? I thought it was rather simple..."

He was cut off by a blond-haired blue-eyed boy who sauntered over carrying a red rose. "Hello, Princess." He said, bowing. "I'm Tamaki Suoh, King of The Host Club. How can I be of service to you?"

I stared at him blankly for a few seconds before shooting a questioning look to Kyoya.

"Tamaki, could you please try not scare away my cousin?" He said calmly, never looking up from his clipboard.

"So you're Kyo-chan's cousin?" The short boy asked, cuddling his stuffed rabbit close to him.

"That, I am. I'm Chiyo Hoshi from Class 1-A." I said smiling.

"Chiyo, would you mind if Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai entertained you for a while?" Kyoya asked pointing to the short and tall guys. "It'll just be until I finish up here."

"Um... Sure?"

"YAY!!! I hope you like cake Chiyo-chan!!!" The short one, Hunny-senpai, exclaimed, and dragged me over to a table. Mori followed behind silently with a tray of tea and cakes. I sat on a love-seat across from them as I munched on strawberry cake. "So where are you from, Chiyo-chan?"

"My family used to travel around a lot. It was my mother's dream to see the world, and she dragged her family around with her. My little sister was actually born in France. We wouldn't stay in one place for more than a year, so it was a little hard, but we all enjoyed it." I said, looking into my teacup.

"So you won't be here very long?" Hunny asked sadly.

"No, I'll be here in Japan for a very long time."

He smiled widely at first and then questioned, "How come? Doesn't your mother want to travel anymore?"

I didn't say anything at first. I just stared into my teacup. "No, she died, and my father followed her about a month ago." I glanced up to see Hunny's eyes fill with tears.

"I'm so sorry, Chiyo-chan!" He said attacking me with a teary hug. Mori got up and pulled Hunny off of me.

"It's okay, it's probably better that you know now rather than later." I replied with a half-smile.

"Who are you staying with then?" Mori-senpai asked quietly.

"Kyoya and my grandfather took us in. He's very nice and quite rich. We were actually planning to go to a public school, but Grandfather insisted that we go to Ouran Academy. He said that we deserved only the best."

"Did you know that Takashi and I are cousins too?!" Hunny asked excitedly.

"No, who's Takashi?"

"I'm Takashi." Mori-senpai said quietly, taking a bite of cake.

"If you don't mind me asking, why do they call you Mori-senpai and you Hunny-senpai?"

"Well our last names are Haninozuka and Morinozuka, so it just sort of came from that." Hunny replied.

"Ah, that makes sense."

"What's a commoner doing here?" A pair of red-headed twins asked together as they plopped down beside Hunny and Mori.

I looked down at my clothes. I wasn't wearing the yellow dress that was used as a uniform. Instead, I wore blue skinny jeans, black Converse high-tops, and a red V-neck shirt. Thinking back on it, I did get a lot of odd stares in the hallway. I figured that it was because I was new; but here it was because I'm dressed like a commoner; an American commoner, that is. I just gave them an odd glare and took another bite of cake.

"Forgive them, Princess." It was that Tamaki character. I wasn't sure if I liked him or not yet. Sure he has charm and looks, but he sort of stares at people as if he wants to rape them. But maybe that's just my twisted view on things… "These two are Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachiin. They're virtually harmless, I assure you."

"It's not them I'm worried about." I mumbled out loud on accident.

"What's that?" One of the twins asked.

"Nothing!" I replied quickly.

"And I'll have you two know that this is Kyoya's cousin, Chiyo. She's in your class so you'd best be nice!" Tamaki said, completely disregarding the side conversation that just happened.

"Oh, we'll be more than nice, Milord." They said together, moving from their seat next to Hunny to sitting on either side of me. Next thing I know, both of them have their arm around me. They smiled at me fiendishly.

"Where's Haru-chan?" Hunny asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Haruhi!" The twins shouted.

"What?" A girlish-looking boy popped up from behind a curtain. He sounded irritated.

"Come meet Chiyo-chan!" Hunny said, kicking his legs and grinning.

"Oh, hello. I'm Haruhi Fujioka; it's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too."

"So what brings you to the Host Club?" Haruhi asked.

"I'm waiting for my cousin. He's my ride home."

"I'm assuming you mean Kyoya-senpai. You two look very similar."

"Um, thank you? No one's ever told me that before. People always say that my little brother and Kyoya act very similar, but Kenji also looks at bit like him too."

"You have a brother too, Chiyo-chan?!" Hunny looked at me excitedly.

"I have two younger brothers and a younger sister."

"Takashi and I have younger brothers too!" He exclaimed.

"Yes, they're quite… energetic…" Haruhi said, sipping some tea.

"My brother, Haruki, is also… energetic. He's in the kendo and karate clubs in the junior high."

"Satoshi is the captain of the Kendo Club. And Yasuchika, Mitsukuni's brother, is the Karate Club's captain." Mori remarked.

"Then I bet you both will be seeing a lot of my brother. He makes friends easily and is very good at martial arts. He's had several teachers as we moved around, so he learned many different techniques." I added. Hunny grinned and offered me more cake. I declined it.

"Chiyo, the limo is here. Are you ready to go?" Kyoya asked, closing his laptop and getting up.

"Yeah," I said, getting up and grabbing my backpack from the floor. "It was really nice meeting all of you." I then turned to leave with my cousin, but Hunny-senpai ran up behind me and grabbed my arm.

"Will you come back, Chiyo-chan?"

"I should be here every day after school, waiting for Kyoya's limo to arrive." I answered grinning at my new friend. Hunny smiled at me and skipped back to sit by Mori-senpai, his stuffed bunny trailing behind him.

"Chiyo, are you coming or not?" Kyoya asked, poking his head from behind the door, faking slight annoyance. I followed him and closed the door behind me.

"I see you made some new friends." Kyoya observed once we were a ways down the corridor.

"Yeah, I had no idea you had friends, Ky!" I said, grinning. He hated it when I called him that in public. I was only three or four when I first called him that, and it sort of stuck.

"Please don't call me that, Chi-Chi." He said mockingly. He would call me that to get his revenge. He just didn't know that I don't really care. I gave him a fake dirty look and continued walking.

"But seriously, Kyoya, why did you join a club like that? It doesn't seem like something you'd be involved in."

"Tamaki asked me to, and being the blubbering idiot he is, he needed some serious help. So I agreed to join."

"That doesn't seem like something you'd do though. When it comes to doing favors, it's all about what _you_ get in return. What are you getting out of it?"

"Life is a game, Chiyo. You lose out if you don't have fun, right? As to why I went along with his ridiculous plan… I'll leave that up to your imagination."

We walked in silence for a while and went outside. "You could've just said 'because I wanted to', you know." I remarked, climbing into the black limo before Kyoya.

"Yeah, but what fun would _that_ be?" He smiled devilishly as he shut the door. "And besides, it's more fun to watch you puzzle over such meaningless things." He chuckled and signaled the driver to drive us back home.

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I'm sorry if it sucked! I promise that the next one will be funnier. Once again, any suggestions are welcome. :D


	2. 2: Surely, the Commoner Jests

Sorry it took so long to add on. I've been really busy. It's not my best work, but I think this chapter's okay. As always, any suggestions are appreciated. Disclaimer: I do not own any of Bisco Hatori's brilliant characters.

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"No! No! No! No! NO!" I growled.

"Yes."

"No, Kyoya. I'm definitely _not_ wearing _that_!" I shrieked at my cousin.

"Oh, yes, you are."

"No I'm not! I wouldn't wear that if you paid me a million dollars!"

"Well, I'd hope not…"

"Fine, I wouldn't wear that if you paid me a million yen!" I yelled, correcting myself.

"You're wearing it. Grandfather ordered me to have you wear the proper uniform," he said calmly, still holding out the hideous yellow dress.

"I'll look like a freaking banana!"

"Chiyo…" he said, pushing up his glasses, irritated.

"What!?"

"Humor me." He said, handing me the dress and smirking before he walked casually off to the limo.

"Damn you, Kyoya Ohtori! Damn you!" I heard him chuckle as I slammed my door shut. I can't say no to that kid, and I hate him for it. On top of not having the ability to say no to him, I can't hate him for long either. He wins both ways, so he's happy with that; at least.

Kyoya will be the best business man in Japan. I'm sure of it. He's the best thing that happened to the Ohtori family; I just wish Uncle Yoshio would realize that. I smoothed down the lemon-colored dress, a useless attempt to make it less puffy. I looked in the mirror and tried to avoid gagging, but failed epically.

"Why did it have to be _yellow_? Of all the colors, why is it _yellow_?" I mumbled, getting agitated. I knew one thing; I definitely was _not_ wearing those shoes. I pulled on my Chucks and ran out to the limo that awaited me.

I was mad at Kyoya for making me wear this dress, but he's also mad at me for wearing my Chucks with it. We glared at each other the whole ride to school. I think my brothers and sister were a little freaked out by it, but they've gotten used to it over the years. It wasn't long before the limo pulled up to the school and I was in my first class, waiting for it to start.

"Hey, it's the Commoner!" two redhead twins came through the door and sat down on either side of me.

"Good morning to you, too," I replied curtly.

"Lighten up, Commoner."

"Yeah, Hikaru's right, Chiyo. And what's with those shoes?"

"I'll have you know, Kaoru, that these shoes are all the rage in America."

"_Those_?" Kaoru said, almost in disgust.

"Surely, the Commoner jests," Hikaru added, mimicking Tamaki-senpai's way of speaking. I laughed to myself. "Haruhi, come over here." He said waving Haruhi over as he walked through the door.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?" Haruhi asked, setting her books down.

"We're just having fun with Chiyo. Huh, Chiyo?" Kaoru said, giving me a smirk.

I glared at him, "Loads." Then the bell rang and the teacher came in. It was hard to stay awake as the teacher droned on about boring topics that are of little relevance. I barely got enough sleep last night and I almost killed my brother, Haruki, when he tried to wake me up this morning. It's a good thing he's a fast runner, or else he could very possibly be dead.

"Psst… Chiyo…" It was Kaoru. He slid a note onto my desk and gave me an expecting look. I raised my eyebrow at him, but I took the note anyway. It read:

"_**Did we make you mad, Commoner?"**_

I replied in English. Japanese plus my handwriting equals disaster.

"_Define 'mad'. And you do realize that I'm not a commoner, right? Or are you and your brother really that naïve?"_ I folded the note into a paper football and flicked it at him. It hit him right in-between they eyes. I tried to suppress a laugh.

"_**What was that for?"**_

"_You deserved it for hating on the Chucks! Wait…were you talking about the naïve comment?"_

"_**No, I was talking about a piece of paper almost stabbing my eye out! And the naïve comment too. Just because we like to make people mad doesn't mean we're naïve."**_ He shot me a hurt look.

"_Now, why don't I believe you? Come, on. It wasn't that close to your eye." _

"_**Yes it was."**_

"_Don't be such a crybaby." _

"_**Speaking of crying, what would make Kyoya embarrassed?"**_ He gave me a huge grin.

"_What would make you think that I'd tell you such a thing?"_

"_**You want revenge for the dress, don't you? And we merely want blackmail material."**_

"_Kyoya doesn't get embarrassed."_

"_**Of **_**course **_**he doesn't."**_

"_Was that sarcasm?"_

"_**This is the perfect way to get your revenge."**_

"_What do _I _get out of it?"_

"_**You're exactly like Kyoya."**_

"_I'm assuming that that was an insult."_

"_**Eh, that would depend on how you took it. But what harm would a simple childhood story do?"**_ I glared at him and he signaled for him to get the note back. I handed it to him, a slightly scared look on his face. _**"If you tell us, we'll get you out of wearing that uniform."**_

"_Agreed,"_ I scrawled on the paper before sliding it back to him. Kaoru grinned and nodded to his brother, who smiled devilishly. Oh, God. What have I done?

The day passed rather quickly. Haruhi helped me find my way around the school because we had the same class schedule. Then, we ate lunch with the twins. Before I knew it, school was over and I was sitting in Music Room 3 with the Host Club, waiting for their guests to arrive. They were all dressed in ridiculous outfits which made them look like hula-dancers. Well, all except Haruhi, who was in his school uniform.

"How did you get out of wearing the hula outfit?" I asked Haruhi as I sat down across from him.

"The outfit Tamaki-senpai picked out for me was inappropriate." He said, sighing.

"Does that happen often?"

"Unfortunately, yes, it does."

"What's so wrong with a hula costume?" I asked casually.

"Oh, I guess Kyoya hasn't told you yet," She said, looking thoughtful. I shook my head. "I'm actually a girl," she whispered, in case a customer came in.

"Why are you pretending to be a guy?" I asked in a surprised tone.

"I have a huge debt to pay the Host Club. My working as a host pays it off," she said with a small smile as if to tell me that she's content with being a host.

"That makes sense, I guess."

"Haruhi!" It was Tamaki-senpai. "Haruhi, the first customers will be coming soon."

"Okay, Senpai. Excuse me, I have to go pay off my debt now," She said smiling at me. Then the hosts got into a pre-planned position a few feet in front of the door. It wasn't long before the door cracked open and a few girls in yellow dresses came in. All of a sudden, there were rose petals everywhere, swirling towards the guests.

"Welcome." The hosts said in unison. It was actually quite a whimsical performance. How did they get the rose petals to swirl like that? I don't see a fan anywhere. Then they all went to work. Tamaki was giving that rapist look to a few of his customers. They swooned; I hid my disgust. Hikaru and Kaoru were doing something; I'm not sure what though. It looked like incest between twins; twincest.

I went over to the secluded table where my cousin sat with his laptop and seated myself next to him. "Kyoya," I said, to make sure he knew I was there.

"Yes, Chiyo?" he asked, still tapping away at the keys.

"Can you explain to me how this works?" he gave me a questioning look before going back to typing. "Why do all these girls come here? What's the point of even having a host club?"

"The ultimate goal of the host club is 'to make every girl happy'." Oh, man, Kyoya has gone into his business mode. I hated it when he did that. "We use each of our host's personality types to our advantage. Mori-senpai's silent and protective disposition goes along perfectly with Hunny-senpai's loli-shota qualities. The twin's selling point is their 'forbidden love' for each other. They are very mischievous, so they can manage that role with ease. Tamaki has a 60% request rate, and he is the self-proclaimed king," he concluded.

"And what's _your_ selling point?" I challenged.

"I'm said to be the cool, calculating one," he said, pushing up his glasses, "but I'm just the vice-president."

"Aw, Ky, don't the girls ever request you?" I asked pouting at him. I could tell that I just made him mad, not that he'd show it openly. All of a sudden, the twins appeared out of nowhere.

"Ky? You call him Ky?!" they said in unison.

"Um, no…?" I was trying to deny the fact that I just called my cousin, the dreaded Shadow King of the Host Club, the name that he specifically ordered me not to call him in public, let alone in front of his friends and customers! He gave me a vicious death glare. I was going to be executed by the most feared boy in all of the Host Club. And he will get his revenge in the most painful way possible. He always does.

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Thanks for reading! I'll try to add on chapters faster from now on. :)


	3. 3:Every Day Is Earth Day!

Hello, and thanks for reading this particular chapter! Sorry it's a bit short, but I think the next one will be longer and better. I think.

Disclaimer: I, for one, do not own Ouran High School Host Club or any of it's awesomeness, for I am not that talented. :)

Suggestions are greatly appreciated! Feedback helps give me ideas and plots, so keep them coming! On with the story...

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I tried my best to avoid his frigid glower, but it's difficult to evade those unforgiving grey eyes. Mori-senpai ushered the guests out of the club quickly and silently. I suppose that it would be best for the club to avoid a scene, but as for me, the more witnesses the better! Kyoya wouldn't do anything if someone was watching who could alter his future. He's enraged, not stupid. But then again, when Kyoya wants revenge, he pays little attention to anything else.

"Um, Kyoya-senpai?" it was Haruhi. I grew tense, waiting to jump in at any moment to save her from the wrath of the Shadow King. I haven't seen Kyoya this mad since we were about seven or eight. I told this girl he liked that he was practically in love with her. He got pissed and sort of tried to drown me in a fountain… But he realized what he was doing and stopped just before I died. It was enough to scare me, hence he got his revenge. We used to try to kill each other a lot when we were young. There was this one time… Well I'll save that story for a less intense moment.

"_What?"_ he growled, never looking away from me.

"I'm sure that it was just a slip-up. It would be really thoughtless to harm Chiyo over an accident." He continued to glare at me; Hell-fire was glowing in his eyes. Haruhi continued, "And of course, if Chiyo chose to sue you, we would have no choice but to prosecute alongside her. It would be the moral thing to do. Are you willing to risk everything because she called you a childhood nickname, Senpai?" We all stared aghast at Haruhi (except Kyoya of course). No one has ever talked to Kyoya like that; _ever._ Kyoya looked at Haruhi and then back at me. The fire in his eyes had died down. He gave me one last glare, and then turned back to his computer. I sighed in relief before giving Haruhi a grateful look. She just nodded contently and told some of the lingering guests outside that the Host Club was re-opened.

There were far less customers than there had been a few minutes ago, but the hosts still continued to "make every girl happy". I took a seat next to Mori-senpai, who was sitting on a couch in the corner. I guessed that he was taking a break from hosting for the time being. I was planning on letting him be, but he looked somewhat lonely.

"Hello, Mori-senpai." I said quietly, staring out of the same window he was. He nodded his acknowledgement and smiled slightly before going back to staring at the window. We sat in silence; but not the uncomfortable kind of silence. It was very calming just to sit and watch the world pass by.

"Chiyo! Takashi!" Mori and I both turned slowly to see our brothers, Haruki and Satoshi, walking towards us just back from Kendo Club.

"Hey, Haruki," I said, a little confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Satoshi was coming here to talk to Takashi-senpai, so I came to see you and Kyoya. Is it a crime to want to see my sister and cousin?" he challenged.

"No…Are Kenji and Miyako at home already?" I asked casually.

"Actually, they're here too," Satoshi chimed in, grinning. I gave him an odd look. You could tell that he and Mori were brothers by appearances, but their personalities were total opposites.

Once I got over that thought, I looked around the room to find my other siblings lounging around with the hosts. Twelve year old Kenji was sitting with Kyoya, probably doing complicated math problems or working on statistics for the club. Little Miyako was sitting in Tamaki-The-Rapist's lap, giggling and blushing. As much as it pained me to see her even relatively close to him, that was the happiest I've seen her in a while. I turned to Haruki, "Why?" I groaned.

"Whatever do you mean, dearest sister?" he was clearly enjoying this. I told them all specifically not to come here unless either Kyoya or I…. Kyoya! That weasel! He told them to come here. This is his revenge, forcing me to watch my little sister be near Tamaki-the-Rapist. Miyako is always drawn to tall, blonde guys. We have no idea why, she just is. Kyoya would know that. I'm going to kill him.

I couldn't kill him now, but I would get him; somehow. I tried to be pleasant about the situation; I couldn't let Kyoya think for a second that I was at all angry. But it's hard to fool the intelligent.

"What's wrong, Chiyo?" Kenji asked me without looking up from his math problem. Great, my cover's blown already.

"What are you talking about?" I eyed him like he was a crazy person and turned to Kyoya. "Can I have an estimation as to when we are heading home?"

"It should be quite a while, we have a meeting after the guests leave," he answered.

"Well, could you send for another driver possibly, seeing how you're rich and have like a million of them…"

"Last I checked, you were rich as well and no, I will not send for another driver," he said in a definite tone. I gave him a "Why the Hell not?" glare and he continued, "Gas isn't a finite resource and every day is Earth Day." He had a devilish grin on his face. I hate him. I sat back down with Mori-senpai. He, once again, nodded his acknowledgement of my existence and we watched the world pass by.

"Mori-senpai, do you and Hunny-senpai ever get into fights like Kyoya and I do?" I asked, I was really curious to know.

"Occasionally, but they don't seem to be anything like your and Kyoya's," he answered quietly.

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you fight about?"

"It's rather silly, what we fight about," he answered hesitantly.

"And you think that wanting to kill someone over a childhood nickname isn't silly?" I challenged.

He smiled and replied, "Touché." Takashi-senpai and I sat there and talked about a little bit of everything. It's the most I've ever heard him talk; ever. I asked him if I could call him by his first name and he had no objection to it. That was the only good thing that came out of that whole day, in my humble opinion.

Not too terribly long after Takashi-senpai and I started talking, Tamaki-senpai called everyone together for a meeting. It mostly consisted of Kyoya talking about the club's finances and Tamaki-senpai running around with Miyako in his arms looking like an idiot. So, it was basically a more organized version of what happens every day throughout the club hours; plus my little sister. We left after we said goodbye to everyone.

As we walked out the door, I saw Satoshi run up to Takashi-senpai, "So, Takashi, what did you and Chiyo-senpai talk about?" He asked with the biggest grin he could muster. Takashi-senpai's face turned a slight shade of red. Satoshi grinned wider, if that was even possible.

Takashi put his hand on Satoshi's shoulder and replied smiling down at him a little, "I don't believe that that concerns you, little brother." I chuckled at Satoshi's disappointed face before I followed Kyoya out the door.

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Once again, I'm sorry it was so short. I hope you enjoyed it though. :)


	4. 4: I Called Him His Name

My two brothers and sister piled out of Kyoya's limo. My _lovely_ elder cousin _ordered_ me ever-so-kindly to stay in the car. Haruki gave me a look of satisfaction at the fact that I was getting called out on something. But he also looked disappointed because he wasn't going to get to know what that something was. Ha, I win.

Once the door was closed and Kyoya and I were alone, he began to speak, "Chiyo, what is it that you and Mori-senpai were conversing about?" He forced his voice to be slightly conversational, but it sounded like he was interrogating me; which of course he was, not that he'd admit it.

"I do not believe that that matter is any business of yours, Kyoya," I answered slowly as if not to screw up, just to keep him guessing a bit.

"I do believe it is, Chiyo. Mori-senpai is a club member and hence forth, his business is mine as well as the rest of the club's," his "Mr. Boss-man voice" was making me a bit angry, but I continued on.

"I'm quite sure that what Takashi and I…"

"What did you call him?" Kyoya asked interrupting me with eyebrows raised.

"I called him his name. Is that a problem?" I asked, glaring. I had just realized that I hadn't added _senpai_ to the end… In America, we don't use such formalities, so I often forget to add them on if I'm not concentrating on it. Kyoya didn't see it that way.

He eyed me with suspicion. "Chiyo, I advise that you not get too terribly attached to the club members. They are there to make _every_ girl happy, not just _one._"

Kyoya is so stupid sometimes. What did he think Takashi and I were talking about anyway? It's not like were making out on the couch or planning our wedding or anything like that. It was just a friendly chat between new friends. Or at least I'm pretty sure it was. I told Kyoya that and he just replied, "Mori-senpai doesn't just have 'friendly chats' with just _anyone_ who comes over to him, Chiyo. I do expect that you will react to this and any other situations similar to this one with a level head." I glared for a moment, but nodded. I understood. They were hosts. Hosts can't be involved with people; easily. But it was ridiculous for Kyoya to even bring up the subject. I talked to Takashi for maybe forty-five minutes at most. I don't think that that's anything to be concerned about…

The rest of my evening was Hell on earth. Once Kyoya's car drove away and I walked inside our mansion, Haruki bombarded me with questions about the discussion that Kyoya and I had. That lasted for about an hour as I was trying to write down the translations for my Conversational French class. It was pretty easy, considering that I lived in France for four years sporadically and was forced to speak and remember the language. But nevertheless, when an annoying fourteen year old is constantly asking you questions in English, which are none of his damn business, it's hard to translate French into Japanese!

Finally, we were called to supper. We were having extra-cheesy pizza with Canadian bacon, and mushrooms upon my and Kenji's request. My grandfather, a tall, athletic, old man with grey hair tried to figure out how one would eat pizza without looking undignified. His weapons of choice: the fork and the knife. He tried chopsticks at first, but soon gave up on that concept. I watched him try to eat and held back laughter. "Did anything interesting happen at school today?" he asked, smiling kindly.

"Chiyo has a boyfriend!!!" Haruki practically yelled. I turned to him; Hellfire was burning in my eyes. He could feel it too; he shrank back in his chair after grabbing another piece of pizza.

"Ah, so who's the lucky boy, Chiyo?" my grandfather looked rather pleased that I supposedly already had a boyfriend after being at Ouran for only two days. I tried to cut in, but failed.

"Takashi Morinozuka, class 3-A, captain of the Kendo Club and also the national champion. He has a younger brother Haruki's age and is related to the Haninozuka family. They are cousins, I believe. In addition, he is in the Host Club; he's either the _strong and silent_ or _wild_ type. Whichever you prefer to use is appropriate," Kenji responded immediately, never looking away from his plate. He's Kyoya's Mini Me and I don't like it.

"Wild type?" my grandfather mulled over the idea for a second. "You're dating someone who is labeled as a 'wild type'?" He looked slightly concerned at this.

"I'm not dating anyone!" I exploded. Everyone looked at me with surprised faces. I continued, "Look, we're just friends. Jeez, you talk to someone for like forty-five minutes and all of a sudden you're dating him!" I mumbled angrily.

"It was more than forty-five minutes, Chiyo," Kenji said, giving me an odd look. "You talked with Mori-senpai for about an hour and a half."

I looked at my little brother, astonished at how the time passed so quickly. "Oh," was all I could manage to say.

"What I want to know is how you even got him to talk," Haruki stated after a long silence, grabbing yet another piece of pizza. "Satoshi says that he almost never talks, not even around his family really." I swear I'm going to beat that kid's face in one of these days. It's none of his business. I glared and he shut his trap in record time.

Everyone left me alone for the rest of the evening. That was a relief. Well, almost everyone. My little puppy, Aram, got scared by the thunderstorm that was raging outside and started clawing at my door. I picked him up in one hand and plopped him down on my bed. I played with his short, tan and black fur as I went over my whole day in my mind. I went over my and Takashi's conversation, and the one that Kyoya and I had. Is there something that I'm doing wrong by befriending Takashi? I dwelled on that thought for a long time, but I couldn't think of anything wrong with it. Then I reviewed our discussion at supper. What Haruki said settled in my mind and refused to go away. _"What I want to know is how you even got him to talk. …he almost never talks, not even around his family really."_ What was that supposed to mean? And why am I still thinking about this? It's utterly meaningless.

I soon fell asleep, my mind still reeling, although I don't know why. I woke once again to Haruki yelling in my ear. He also woke up Aram who started growling and chasing after my younger brother. Haruki left before Aram could catch him. My little German Shepard somehow made it back up to my bed and curled up on my stomach, asleep. I stroked his little body and said quietly, "I knew there was a reason why I picked you from the shelter. You must have AB negative blood type too." I smiled before picking him up gently and sitting him on my pillow. I got dressed quickly in my banana dress and Chucks. I looked at my bed and saw that Aram must have went down to eat or something. I grabbed my bag and ran out to the limo, still in a zombie-like state from lack of sleep.

"What happened to _you_?" I asked Kyoya as I clambered into the car. His hair was a wreck, he had huge bags under his eyes, and for once in his life, and his tie was completely wonky.

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied grumpily. I looked in a mirror and saw that my hair looked a bit like a fohawk… I took the comb that Kyoya produced from his pocket, after he was done with it of course, and tried to fix my hair. By the time I was done, my hair looked the way it usually does; short and black with layers that poked out at random angles. Kyoya, when he first saw it, called me a quote "gothic American pixie". He secretly loves it; he just doesn't realize it quite yet. I fixed Kyoya's tie for him, seeing how he was in ruins this morning, I decided to be nice. I had to tie it on myself first though, before handing it to him to put around his neck. He seemed to find this quite amusing. I thought it was funny that I could tie a better Rich Man's Knot than he could.

The first couple hours went along rather smoothly. The twins weren't too terribly bothersome, although Kaoru had to continue his daily ritual of making fun of my shoes. It wasn't until right before my geography class that I noticed something furry and moving in my bag. Aram looked up at me and wagged his tail happily. I groaned. How the hell did he get in there and how was I supposed to keep him hidden? When I got to Geography class, I asked the teacher if I could go to the infirmary to get some aspirin. He nodded and started the lesson. I went off to find somewhere that I could put my little Aram without him being found. I rounded a corner without looking and ran straight into a hard, muscular chest. I heard a small yelp as my bag, my books, and I all fell to the floor from such a blow. We both muttered our apologies and Takashi helped me pick up my books. I looked around desperately for my puppy that seemed to have escaped from my school bag.

Takashi had already stood up. He cleared his throat and got my attention, "Looking for something?" I then saw little Aram cradled in Takashi-senpai's arm. I was in a state of shock. Aram hated everyone except me. I was the only one besides a few of our maids that could get anywhere near him. But nevertheless, I smiled my thanks. "Do you need a place to hide him for a while?" He asked me quietly.

"Yeah, I guess I do," I replied. He helped me up with his free hand and we started walking. Once we got into the warm sunshine, I said, "Thank you for helping me, Mori-senpai. I really appreciate it." He slowed down his pace and looked at me. His face was stoic as ever, but his eyes showed disappointment. I understood how he felt. I had been given many nicknames over the years, Yoshi being the most popular. He's the dragon/camel-like horse-thing in the Mario games. Some of the guys at the American schools I went to decided that my last name was close to Yoshi, and hence, my nickname was born. But the point is that it still feels good when people care enough to call you by your real name. I tried to pull it off as a slip-up, "Oh, I'm sorry, Takashi-senpai, I had a mental lapse there." He smiled faintly and kept walking. It wasn't until we reached the kendo dojo that he spoke.

"You don't have to lie to me, I know Kyoya doesn't approve of our friendship," he said softly, opening the door for me.

"Thanks. Sorry about Kyoya. He's very protective of the club and his friends. Despite what he says or does to you guys, he just wants the best. I haven't quite determined if it's the best for you or him yet, but still," Takashi chuckled a bit at my last remark. He knew it was true. He then led me back to what looked like a storage room. There were shinai and parts of the uniform sprawled out across the floor. We found an old helmet in the back corner and made a bed-like structure of it for Aram. He curled up and soon fell asleep.

"I really want to thank you for this," I said as we went out the door. He nodded and we walked. He carried my books under his right arm. "You know, I can carry that myself," I said. He looked down at me, smiled slightly, and kept walking. We walked in silence until we got outside my classroom door.

Takashi handed me my books slowly and said coolly, "I'll bring your puppy with me to the Host Club, if that's okay, Hoshi-san."

"That would be great, Takashi," I whispered so I wouldn't disrupt the class. Takashi looked at me in surprise. "Takashi-senpai, I mean." I then mumbled, "Damn Japanese formalities…" I cleared my throat, "Thank you so much." Takashi smiled and nodded before walking away. I watched him until he rounded the corner. I then slipped into my geography class as if nothing had ever happened. As far as they knew, my puppy wasn't sleeping in the kendo club storage room, I didn't just mess up on my Japanese formalities, and Mori-senpai didn't just help me immensely. As far as they knew, all was right in the world.

Until, that is, Hikaru yelled across the classroom, "Hey, Chiyo, what were you and Mori-senpai talking about outside the door for about five minutes?" Damn it. I forgot that the door had a window and I had my back to them the whole time.

"Whatever are you talking about, Hikaru?" I played dumb. It was just about all I could do at that point. I couldn't tell them about Aram with the teacher right there. If there's anything I learned from nursery rhymes is that when Mary brought her lamb to school, all hell broke loose. Just imagine what would happen if someone brought in their aggressive little puppy. Play dumb and hope they believe it. Here's hoping that it works for once.


	5. 5: An Immaculate Array Of Majestic Curls

Hello. This a warning that this particular chapter is slightly dark and depressing towards the end, but it was necessary, I assure you. Anyhow.... Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. Never have and unfortunately never will. :( Very sad. So, um... You can start reading now, if you so wish....

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The only good thing about playing dumb is that the dumb people don't catch onto it. Lucky for me, Hikaru's dumb. Well, it's not so much that he's dumb, as he can't find his way around simple psychological tricks. Example: I answered every question he gave me with a question. That was the only thing I had to do. Hikaru eventually got bored with it and dropped the whole thing. Though Kyoya says their lack of the ability to stay amused causes him unnecessary trouble, it worked out quite well for me.

The day passed on slowly. I wondered how Aram was doing. He was probably still sleeping. If it wasn't genetically impossible, I would think that my German Shepard was part cat. He sleeps a lot and he hates people. Yup, definitely part cat. During lunch, I went to the kendo dojo to give Aram some goldfish crackers that I swiped from Kenji's snack stash. Goldfish crackers are a fetish of my brother's. He could eat like a million of them and still be able to eat more. Anyhow, once I went inside, I noticed that I wasn't alone. Both Takashi and Satoshi were training inside. I didn't want to interrupt, so I just stood at the door and watched. Takashi was showing Satoshi a new technique and I was captivated by how effortless Takashi made it look. I stood there for a good ten minutes before I was finally noticed.

"Hello, Chiyo-san!" Satoshi grinned at me, ignoring what his brother was trying to show him, "What brings you to the Kendo Club? Are you here to see Taka? What are those?" He was pointing to the small carton of goldfish crackers I held in my hand. Satoshi had fired off questions so fast that I didn't know which to answer, so I picked the last one.

"Uh, they're goldfish crackers. Would you like to try some?" I was just trying to be polite.

"Sure," he said excitedly as he took a handful from me and put them in his mouth. "Hmmm… They're not bad, but they lack flavor…" I just looked at him. I took a few. They had plenty of flavor. I didn't notice that someone had slipped in the door behind me.

"Shut up, Satoshi, you have no taste buds," I turned to see who I assumed to be Hunny's brother. He was taller than Hunny, about nine or ten inches anyhow. He also had glasses and darker hair.

"Hello, Haninozuka-kun." I said, not remembering his first name. I know that I know his name, I just can't remember it.

"Do I know you?" Hunny's brother responded rather rudely.

"Yasuchika! Don't speak to our upper-classmen like that!" Satoshi scolded, hitting Hunny's brother on the head with his shinai.

"Ow! Stupid Satoshi!" Yasuchika's eyes started to water slightly before he quickly wiped them. "Who is she anyway?" He said, eyeing me with slight hatred.

Before I could answer, Satoshi cut in, "This is Chiyo-san, Haruki Hoshi's older sister and a good friend of Taka and Mitsukuni's. So I suggest that you be nice. Apologize to her for being so rude." Satoshi hit him again in the head after a brief pause.

"Ow! I'm sorry, Chiyo-san, for being rude," he said robotically. "I'm Yasuchika Haninozuka."

"It's nice to meet you, Yasuchika-kun," I replied, a bit confused at why Takashi was just standing there, not preventing Satoshi from hitting Yasuchika.

"Satoshi, we only have a few minutes until our next class, so I suggest that you get changed or else you'll be tardy; again," Yasuchika said coolly. He seemed rather detached from everything that goes on around him. I found this odd. It seems that in the Morinozuka and Haninozuka families, the second child is the opposite of the first.

Satoshi looked at his brother, who nodded as if to say, "you are dismissed", before going into the changing room. He returned several minutes later in his middle school uniform. "Goodbye, Chiyo-san! I'll see you at home, Taka. Don't do anything I wouldn't do," he said winking as he disappeared out the door. I looked over at Takashi. He was as confused as I was.

"Shall we go check up on your puppy?" Takashi said, breaking the silence. I nodded as we went into the small room. Aram was up and running around for once. He ran up to us and wagged his tail happily. Takashi scooped him up in on hand and held him out to me.

"I see you're awake for once, Aram," I smiled and started giving him goldfish crackers.

"Out of curiosity," Takashi said quietly, "why did you name him Aram?"

"Oh, well, it's the name of a main character in one of the mangas I read," I replied. "The Aram in _Merupuri_ was unruly and naïve, just like this little guy. And it's just a pretty b.a. name." He gave me an odd look. "Uh, b.a. stands for bad ass. We use it a lot in the states…" I felt a little embarrassed. I really shouldn't use American slang to communicate over here. It doesn't really work.

"I see," he said nodding before changing the subject. "I hope you accept my apologies for Satoshi and Yasuchika's behavior, Hoshi-san."

"It's no problem, Takashi-senpai. Haruki does the exact same thing. It doesn't surprise me at all that those three ended up friends," I said with a bit of a smirk. Aram finished the crackers and Takashi sat him back down on the floor. He looked up at us, tail wagging and tongue lolling before retiring to his helmet-bed. Takashi and I chuckled softly before the bell rang, causing me to realize how fast lunch break had passed. I muttered, "Goodbye, Takashi-senpai," before leaving in a rush.

Later, at the Host Club, I was waiting for Takashi to get back from Kendo Club with Aram. I decided to do my Conversational French homework to pass the time. Someone came over and sat beside me. I assumed it was one of those pesky Hitachiins, so I said in an annoyed tone, "Peux-je vous aider?" _Can I help you?_

"Non, ma princesse. Personne peut m'aider." _No, my princess; no one can help me._ He replied in a despairing tone. I looked up, glaring to see none other than Tamaki Suoh looking at me pathetically.

"Then leave," I said flatly. Tamaki looked at me aghast before quickly going into a fetal position in the corner. He looked completely dejected. I stared at him, not knowing what to do. "Uh… Haruhi? I think I'm going to need some backup…" I called. Haruhi walked over casually. "What's he doing?" I asked quietly.

"He's in his Corner of Woe right now. He'll snap out of it as soon as you give him a compliment," she explained. She turned to Tamaki, "My, Senpai, your hair looks nice today." He looked up with puppy-dog eyes. Haruhi then urged me to finish what she had started.

"Why yes, Tamaki-senpai, it is certainly an immaculate array of majestic curls," I said quickly.

Tamaki got up slowly before practically pouncing on us. "Oh, I'm so glad someone noticed! You know, I just got a new conditioner and I was quite worried about how it would affect my golden locks. But your kind compliments have erased all doubt!" I stared at him in astonishment. Haruhi was right; he did snap right out of that. Haruhi left me alone with him again. She had to go work to pay off her debt. Tamaki sat down again.

"Really, what do you want?" I said agitated.

"I want to know is how you can be so similar, yet so different from Kyoya," he said musing, his hand waving around aimlessly.

"That's simple. For one, I'm a girl. For two, he didn't travel the world his whole childhood. And thirdly, his parents are still alive," I said completely detached. "As to how we are similar, we both have Ohtori AB- blood running through our veins. We both have two brothers and a sister, and we have ways of getting what we want under any circumstance possible," I concluded. He looked sad for some reason.

"I'm very sorry about your parents," was all he could say for a moment. "How did they die?" I don't know why, but I really wanted to tell him everything. There was just a slight twinge of understanding in his voice that I couldn't avoid. So, I sighed and looked into my teacup.

"My mother was diagnosed with brain cancer about five years ago. We were living in Chicago then. My mother always loved Chicago; the bright lights, the plays, the musicians in the street. All of a sudden, she was put in the hospital. I was eleven, so they wouldn't tell me everything. But being part Ohtori, I got my answers. They just weren't particularly good answers… We continued to travel, though it wasn't good for her health. About three years later, we had just gotten back from France and we were moving to Pennsylvania. It wasn't long before the chemotherapy and radiation weren't enough. They decided that it was necessary to remove the brain tumor my surgical means. They messed up," I said, looking up at Tamaki for the first time. "They accidentally severed her main artery when they started to close, and she bled to death right there on the table," I concluded. Tamaki looked at me, sorrowful.

"And your father?" he managed to croak.

"Suicide," I sighed. "He couldn't bear to live without her. So about two months ago, after he had said a rather affectionate good night, he overdosed on painkillers…he had also cut my mother's name into his arm; 天照, Amaterasu, 'shining over heaven'. I'm the one who found him. He was slumped on the floor, lying in his own blood that trailed from his arm."

"But… How can you be so…?" Tamaki asked slowly.

"Detached? I suppose I'm still angry at him. I don't blame him for committing suicide. It's his right to end it whenever he can no longer take it. I'm angry because if it wasn't me who found him, who would've? If in my situation at that point, Haruki would try to stay strong, but would crack after a few moments, Kenji would try to stay level-headed, but secretly would blame himself. And Miyako…I don't even want to think of what would happen if Miyako would've found her only parent cold and dead upon that floor, drenched in his own blood," my voice was dark. It was full of pain and resentment. I had never talked about this before with anyone.

"I'm very sorry for your losses. I would assume that I owe you something," Tamaki said, clearing his throat and wiping his eyes. I gave him an odd look. "Did Kyoya tell you anything about my situation?"

"Besides the fact that your bat of a grandmother hates you and the situation with your mother, you mean?" I asked.

"I guess you do know then," he said, with a slight smile.

"Tell me about your mother," I said, breaking the silence. Tamaki looked at me in slight awe. "Unlike Kyoya, I don't like to get to know people from simply what their file says." Tamaki smiled and told me every detail of his mother. It gave me comfort. Even though Tamaki may seem like a womanizing rapist, he's just trying to do what he did for his mother. He aims to make every girl happy. As he spoke, I thought about _my_ mother. Both my and Tamaki's mothers were very similar in every sense. The thing that stood out to me the most was that our mothers both tried to be strong for their children. Though they were in pain or exhausted, they would always smile and tell us that things always turn out for the better. They have to. If not, there is no point in believing in anything. If not, then what's the point of a miracle?

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I'm sorry if it was a little odd, but I don't think it was too bad... The "an immaculate array of majestic curls" is a direct quote from my friend Bret. It was absolutely necessary that that tidbit was worked in. :) I would like to thank everyone who has read thus far and also to those who have reviewed! :) Reviews keep me going and the input really helps modivate me to keep writing. Okay, I think I'm done babbling now... Wait, I'd just like to say that something awesome will probably happen in the next chapter...Or the chapter after that at the latest... So you'll have to keep reading to find out how ridiculously awesome my evil plan of evilness...(?) is. Mwahahaha! (Sorry, it's like 1 in the morning here and I am sleep deprived...) Now, I shall take my leave. :)


	6. 6: You Look A Little Lost, Dear

Hello everyone and sorry for the long wait... I was sort of grounded for a few days. Anyway, this chapter was really hard to write, so I hope it isn't as bad as I think it might be. I know absolutely nothing about kendo really, so if I screwed something up, just deal with it. I was sort of vague though... Warning: this chapter is slightly evily awesome. ^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club or any of its characters, sadly. I am not that talented or brilliant. :( On with the show!

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Tamaki had to leave me soon after our conversation. He had customers, and Takashi had just come in. Aram was snuggled up in his arm and Hunny was on his shoulders. "Chiyo-chan! Chiyo-chan!" Hunny said in his peppy little voice. "Do you want to have some cake with Takashi and me?" he asked excitedly.

"Of course, Hunny-senpai," I replied, grinning. I normally wouldn't grin like that, but Hunny seems to bring out the best in people. We sat in a corner and chatted. I noticed that Takashi didn't put too much in the conversation, but he seemed okay with that.

"Where'd you get such a cute puppy, Chiyo-chan?" Hunny asked me, squeezing Aram. Aram didn't seem to mind at all. Maybe it's just my family he hates…

"I got him at the Human Society in Pennsylvania a few months ago," I replied, taking a bit of cake. "They found him and his siblings abandoned in a cardboard box somewhere."

"That's so sad," Hunny sniffled. "Why'd you choose him instead of one of his brothers or sisters?"

"Well, when we went to the shelter, they took us into a room with all of them running around in there. Four of them ran up to us and pleaded for attention; but one of them just sat down a few feet away from us. As my siblings played with the others, I just watched this little dog. He sat there, staring at us, but not seeming to care if we noticed him back. He didn't move, he didn't bark; it was as if he was weighing his options. I took a few steps towards him, he didn't flinch. I kneeled down and looked directly into his eyes. His gaze was identical to my mothers; childlike, yet immaculately wise. I picked him up and told my dad that Aram was my pick," I said, coming back from my own fantasy world of the past.

"Wow! What a great story, Chiyo-chan," Hunny grinned. "So you picked him because he reminded you of your mother?'

"_That_ and Aram absolutely _**hates**_ Haruki," I smirked. Takashi chuckled. "What's so funny?" I asked.

"Nothing," he replied, "it's just that getting a dog that hates your brother is exactly what you would do." I smiled. It could've been worse; I could've gotten a poisonous snake that hated Haruki instead of a fluffy little puppy.

We continued chatting and soon, Kyoya informed me that it was time to leave. I stood up after finishing off my last bite of cake. "Well, that's my cue. I really enjoyed our chat. Oh, and Takashi-senpai, thank you so much," I smiled, picked up Aram and started walking out. Haruhi waved from the table that she was hosting at. "Hitachiins!" I yelled, "Don't forget about our little agreement we made."

"You have to give us what we want first," they said stubbornly in unison. That's right. I have to remember to bring them some pictures or something on Monday.

"Fine, I'll get on that," I replied, returning the peace signs they flashed at me. "I'll see you guys on Monday!" I called before almost escaping out the door. _Almost._

"But my precious daughter!" Tamaki yelped, attacking me in what some of my friends would classify as a "rape hug". He smelled of awesome, but other than that, it was quite unpleasant. "You have yet to say goodbye to your Father!"

"What the hell are you talking about? Get your hands off of me!" I shouted, twisting myself free from him.

He pouted and turned to Kyoya, "Mommy, our daughter doesn't love me! She's acting like Haruhi except meaner." I stared at him.

"Okay, so in your little screwed up world, you and Kyoya are the father and mother to Haruhi and me?" I asked in disbelief.

Tamaki nodded and Hikaru added from across the room, "We're also in there, but Milord isn't as protective of the rest of us." I nodded and followed Kyoya out the door, not wanting to crush "Milord's" alternate reality too soon.

"He's crazy," I said to Kyoya once we got in the limo. "Even if it is in his little fantasy world, the last time I checked, it isn't socially acceptable for someone's _male cousin_ to be their _mother_!"

Kyoya chuckled, "Welcome to my personal hell of Tamaki's antics."

"How the hell do you stand it? He seems fine when he's just having a talk with someone. I was actually thinking of him not so much as a rapist anymore and then he pulls something like that!" Kyoya laughed. "I feel sorry for Haruhi…" I said quietly. She probably goes through that on a daily basis.

"You'll get used to it, maybe," he smirked before adding seriously, "Maybe he's trying to make you less bitter about your father."

"It'll take a long time for that to happen," I said coldly, getting out of the limo with Aram once it reached my house. The evening passed rather quickly. I finished my homework early, played Monopoly with Kenji (he won, no surprise there), ate teriyaki chicken and rice for supper and Myspaced the rest of the night. I Myspace a lot. It's really the only way to stay in touch with all of my friends.

I woke yet again to Haruki yelling at me. He's the only one brave enough to face the challenge of getting me up. "What the Hell do you want!?" I snarled, "It's Saturday!"

"I have a kendo competition, remember? And you are coming!" he practically yelled. I grumbled and started climbing out of bed. He left immediately. I think he thought that I was coming after him. I probably would've if I wasn't so tired. I threw on some jeans, and a blue shirt that looked like a comic book exploded on it. I brushed my hair into its "gothic pixie" style and put a small, blue and black checkered bow clip in it. I didn't think I looked too bad for getting ready in five minutes. I pulled on my Chucks and went out the door.

It was a bit of a drive, but we got to the competition in good time. I thought it was a bit extreme for a sporting event. They had security for some reason and it was completely packed with people. Kenji and Miyako stayed with our grandfather as I searched for a concession stand of some kind. I _needed_ caffeine and I needed it right _then_. I didn't find anything; figures. I was about to try to find my family when a vaguely familiar voice called out, "Hey, Chiyo-san!" At first, I thought it was Hunny, but the voice was far too deep to be him. I turned.

"Takashi-senpai?" Sure enough, there he was in blue jeans and a collared white button-down shirt with silver pinstripes. I stared at him in surprise. He had never called me by my first name before and I didn't expect to see anyone I knew here.

"I didn't think you would be here," he said, grinning. I stared at him. I'd never seen him grin before either.

"Uh, Takashi-senpai, are you feeling okay? Are you sick or something?" I asked, concerned.

"Don't be silly, Chiyo-san! Of course I'm fine. You're so sweet for worrying about me like that," he beamed at me with a wink. I was at a complete loss of words. I had _never_ seen Takashi like this. He was being quite outgoing and flirty. It was a tad frightening. "You look a little lost, dear," I continued to stare at him in dumb wonder. Not being fully awake doesn't help your ability to reason with human behavior.

"Uh, I don't know exactly where the room where the competition takes place went…" I said slowly, trying to figure out if this was all a dream.

"Don't worry, I'll escort you there," he replied, taking my hand in his and towing me down the hall. I knew as soon as I woke up that today was going to be weird. But I didn't expect this at all!

My pocket buzzed. It was a text from Kenji. _"Haruki and Satoshi are up next,"_ it read. I showed it to Takashi. "We'd best hurry then," he said smiling and picked up the pace. It wasn't hard for me to keep up. I was about the same height as the twins and I had long legs. Takashi had gotten us back just in time to see Haruki and Satoshi duke it out. I never really understood the rules of kendo. I was more of a soccer or rugby person. Takashi watched intently as our brothers started to _kendo_ (for lack of a better verb). I got lost in how fluid their motions were. It looked rather graceful for such an excruciating sport. Their match wore on. About halfway through, I realized that my hand was still encased within Takashi's. His hand was big and warm. I usually didn't like people in my personal bubble, ever. But I felt comfortable with this for some reason. He doesn't crush your hand or let it lay limp. It was like he was protecting you somehow… I don't know why I was thinking of that at that particular moment. The thought just sort of plagued my mind I guess. I turned my focus back to the competition. I knew enough about kendo to know that it was a fair fight.

It turned out that the Morinozuka family would prevail over the Hoshi family. I wasn't surprised really. The Morinozuka family was renowned for their immense skills in the martial arts. In my family, it was more of an obsessive hobby for the first son. Even Kyoya's eldest brother dabbled in it when he was young. No one else really knows besides the family, I'm not sure why it's such a secret, but whatever.

"Your brother is a very skilled," Takashi said smiling, "he was giving Satoshi a run for his money." From anyone else, I would've considered that gloating.

"Satoshi-kun is very talented as well," I replied, watching our brothers walk back to the changing rooms, I assumed, patting each other on the back and congratulating each other.

"Do you want to go see them?" he asked.

"Are we even allowed?" I asked. "There's security and everything…"

He winked and started to lead me out of the room. It was weird being led around by an _outgoing_ Takashi Morinozuka. I didn't know what to say to him. It was just sort of awkward-turtle. "Why so quiet, Chiyo-san?" he asked me, smiling wide.

"Are you _sure_ you're okay, Takashi-senpai?" I asked him skeptically.

He laughed lightly. "I'm perfectly fine. It's so cute when you fret over things. You get this little furrow in-between your eyes…" he smiled slightly and I couldn't help but smile back a bit. We started talking. I realized that he was still the Takashi I knew, just unnaturally outgoing and flirty. We were no longer holding hands at this point, which was fine by me. We walked down an abandoned hallway. Takashi seemed to know where he was going, so I was confident.

Footsteps. I didn't know who they belonged to, but it certainly wasn't either of us. Takashi had told me that no one was really supposed to see the competitors until after the whole event was over, but he thought he could get us in somehow. I could hear the person approaching around the corner. We had already snuck through one security obstruction, so we were far beyond where any non-competitor would be. I didn't know what would happen if they caught us, and I really didn't want to find out. There was really nowhere to hide in this hallway. The footsteps got louder. All of a sudden, I got pulled sharply to the other side of the hallway and into a small janitors' closet. Takashi pulled the door closed silently and put a finger to his lips. The footsteps got louder and slowly receded to silence. We waited a minute to make sure he was really gone. He was.

Takashi smiled, "See, nothing to worry about." He tried to push the door open. It didn't budge. He tried again. No avail.

"Damnit, it's locked isn't it?" I groaned. He nodded and gave me an apologetic smile. I checked my cell phone of course, there was no signal. "What are we going to do now?" I questioned.

"I suppose we wait," he replied with a shrug. I looked around the closet for the first time since entering. It was about four feet wide by five feet across with a sink and several shelving units. There was very little room to sit down, but we managed after much difficulty. We were huddled in a corner, sitting about two inches away from each other. There wasn't much to do at this point. The competition would carry on for another few hours, so no one would be looking for us. So we just sat and talked. It was sort of nice really hearing Takashi's opinion on things. I didn't feel like I was dominating the conversation in any way. I told him about my parents and how they died. He was sorry about their deaths, but not in the same way Tamaki was. Tamaki understood. Takashi wanted to make everything bad that happened disappear. It was comforting I guess.

"There's something I want to tell you," he said slowly after a few moments of random silence.

"What, Takashi-senpai?" I asked.

His lips fell slowly, deliberately, and softly against mine. He kissed me slowly and sweetly. I hardly knew what to do. He took me by complete surprise. I kissed him back. A long and peaceful forever broke when Takashi pulled away from me and smiled warmly. His eyes glittered. I was sort of happy that he was my first kiss. I was not happy, however that my first kiss was inside a janitors' closet. My mother always said that things happen for a reason. I just want to know what the reasoning for what happened next was…

* * *

So? What'd you think? I warned you that it would be evil. :) It has been brought to my attention by my best friend that the last few paragraphs are awkward. I'm sorry, it's really hard to write Takashi's character in his, as we call it, "happy state". (It makes him sound like he's high, but that's what we call it.) But I hope you enjoyed it regardless and I will try very hard not to get grounded again. Any comments, questions, and critiques are very welcome! ^_^


	7. 7: That Boy's On Crack

* * *

Ughhh!! I'm so sorry for keeping everyone waiting for so long! And at such a cliffhanger too... Well, I realize that I should really have no excuse, but I had a situation with my pindrive when the chapter was almost done the first time and it decided that the file was corrupted. I got pissed off at it and sorta neglected it...for a few weeks... I sure showed that damn thing what's what, huh? ;)

Anyway... I got a few reviews from people expressing concern about Takashi being out of character... This was on purpose. If you would ever-so-kindly recall the extra episode at the end of Volume 5... "Mori's Secret". If you haven't read this, open a new tab and go to .com and read it. They have all the extras included in the volumes there. I would suggest that you read that first...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. If I did, quite frankly, all hell would break loose. :)

* * *

Takashi remained locked in that janitor's closet for quite a while. We were in that stage of being half asleep, half not. We both knew we _had_ to stay awake. We had to be able to hear someone coming to let us out. Over the course of the time we had been in there, our positioning had changed from sitting there, barely touching each other to me halfway sitting on him with his arms around me protectively. It was more comfortable, at any rate. Takashi would occasionally steal a quick kiss from me as we waited to be rescued.

I still wasn't sure of what to think of this flirty Takashi that I had encountered that day. But at least I didn't have to guess at his emotions anymore. They were laid out for me flawlessly right on his face. And for the first time since I met Takashi Morinozuka, he looked perfectly and utterly content. As for me, this was the first time since my parents died that I felt truly safe. I had almost forgotten what that feeling felt like.

"I'm really happy that I ran into you today, Chiyo," Takashi said, smiling down at me.

"Oh, so we aren't using formalities anymore I see. What happened to Hoshi-san and Chiyo-san, Mr. Morinozuka?" I said jokingly.

In response, he put his face close to mine and muttered, "I don't feel they're necessary anymore," before kissing me again.

This kiss was far more passionate than before. Somehow, Takashi's hand ended up entangled in my hair and my hand was pressed against his muscular chest. I could feel a smile creep across his lips.

I heard the sound of a camera phone as light flooded into the closet. "Whoa," I heard two familiar voices say as I pulled my lips away from Takashi's.

"Go Taka!" Satoshi said smiling as he gave his brother a thumbs-up.

"Yeah, good for you, Mori-senpai," Haruki exclaimed as he shoved his phone into his jeans pocket. "Well, uh, I suppose we'll give you two some privacy…" he said as they started backing away and closing the door.

"Haruki, if you shut that door, I swear, I will soak your clothes in ground beef and lock you in my closet with Aram," I said dangerously. The door swung open the rest of the way again. Takashi helped me up and I took a handful of Haruki's shaggy, dark brown hair and pulled him around the corner.

"Ow, Ow, Ow…" he whined as I let go. "Was that necessary?"

"Haruki, I swear, if you tell _anyone_ especially _Kyoya_ about this…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You'll kill me, right?" he said, leaning up against the wall and yawning in an uninterested fashion.

"Why were you going to the janitor's closet anyway?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah! Some kid puked all over the place! It was the single most disgusting but awesome thing I've ever seen in my life! It was orange, Chiyo! _Orange!_" he said excitedly, flailing his arms about.

"You are one disturbed little boy," I said shaking my head in slight disgust.

"You just don't understand how epic it was," he pouted, turning his back to me. "But instead of finding a janitor, I find you and Mori-senpai making out."

"We weren't making out!" I protested.

A sly grin crept across his face. "Well, from my angle…"

"I swear, Haruki, one of these days I'm going to kill you!"

"You threaten to kill me all the time, and yet, I'm still alive," he said with an air of arrogance. It was as if he outsmarted me somehow to remain alive. That's not it so much as murder isn't legal quite yet.

I said what I would always say when we had this discussion, but I didn't realize how much it stung now. "Well, Dad isn't going to save you this time."

His face fell immediately. I knew I shouldn't have said that. It was just a force of habit I guess. Haruki and my dad were really close. If they were the same age, I'm sure they'd be best friends. He was probably the most hurt by Dad's death. "Haruki… I'm so…"

"Don't bother, Chiyo," he sighed. "It's not your fault Dad killed himself is it? And it's not like _I'm_ the one who found him, so I suppose that I should just get over it." He started to turn before adding, "Maybe if I found him, _I _would be the one crying out in my sleep instead of you."

I stood there for several seconds in total shock. Was he just saying that to make me feel worse? No, Haruki's a pain in the ass; he's not evil like me. I walked slowly around the corner.

Haruki was completely back to his "normal" self. He was smiling and joking as if nothing had happened. I envy him. If something upsets him, he can immediately put up a convincing front so he can deal with it later. I, however, don't have that ability exactly.

Takashi turned towards me with a refreshing smile on his face. He then saw my face and he immediately looked worried. "What's wrong, dear?" he mumbled, pulling me into a strong hug.

"Well, we better go find a janitor before someone thinks that the puke is nuclear waste," Satoshi laughed. He gave me what seemed to be an apologetic look before he left with my brother.

"We'll be leaving soon, Chiyo," Haruki called over his shoulder. Then they were gone.

"What's wrong?" Takashi asked again.

"I-It's nothing," I replied. It really _was_ nothing. But for some reason, I couldn't really make myself believe that it was.

So I wasn't as strong as I thought.

So what?

So, now I have to admit that I'm just a child. I'm only a scared and insecure little kid who would give almost anything to have things back the way they were. Even though I should admit this, I know I won't.

So for now, it's just nothing. It's the Ohtori part in me singing out. Just bury your troubles under that mask you call a face and get over it.

"You don't have to lie," Takashi whispered. I wanted to tell him everything, but as usual, I said nothing. His scent was enough to calm me down and make my thoughts start to float away.

"It's really nothing."

He pulled me away from him at about arm's length looking me over. "Okay," he said uneasily before pulling me into another hug. I felt something being slipped into my back pocket, but I thought nothing of it.

"I'll escort you to the entrance," he said gallantly taking my hand and leading me back the way we came.

"Well, Takashi-senpai, I suppose this is goodbye for today," I said with a half smile. He nodded and I noticed that his eyelids were starting to droop. "Try to get some sleep, okay?"

He gave me a refreshing smile. "You're so sweet for worrying about me." Even though I had spent the whole day with him, I couldn't help but still be surprised at how uncharacteristically outgoing and flirty he was. Oh well. Takashi is still Takashi whether he's quiet or outgoing.

We said a quick goodbye before I walked out to the limo. Haruki looked at me with an air of satisfaction. I glared at him the whole ride home.

As soon as I reached my room, I passed out on my bed. I almost squashed Aram in the process, but he moves pretty fast. It wasn't long before I fell into a fitful sleep. This was the first time I'd actually dreamed about my parents.

I awoke to a small finger poking at my cheek. I grumbled. The finger poked at my cheek with a little more force. "Chiyo! Chiyo! Ma soeur!" Miyako called quietly.

"What is it, Miyako?" I groaned. I couldn't bring myself to scare her the way I scare Haruki on a daily basis.

"Chiyo, it's rude to keep guests waiting, you do realize."

"Kyoya…" I growled, "It's rude to enter someone's room without permission."

"Actually, considering that I was _let_ in by a third party who also takes residence here, it's perfectly acceptable."

Ugh. I hate him.

"Shut up, Kyoya. Nobody likes you here," I said groggily as I rolled over.

"That's okay, Kyoya-chan! I still like you!" Miyako cried out as if Kyoya would actually be offended by what I just said.

"Why, thank you, Miyako-chan. I'm quite glad that someone likes me after all." Oh man. He was seriously going into hosting mode with my sister. I'm going to kill him. "Now, why don't you go on ahead and I'll take care of Chiyo for you," he said with a plastered-on smile. Miyako smiled widely and skipped out of my room.

"Where do you get off on using your hosting on my sister?" I grumbled.

"Where do you get off on sleeping the day away?" he fired back.

"Why are you even here?" I asked, totally disregarding his question.

"Grandfather has ever so kindly invited me to dinner this evening," he answered in a pleasant tone. "And I accepted; being the polite young gentleman I am." His voice was laced with sarcasm. "It really is rude keeping us all waiting, Chiyo, so I suggest that you get up and make your way downstairs."

He was right, not that I'd let him know that, so I got up. I ran a comb through my hair really fast and made it to the dining room just as the food was coming in. I'm not exactly sure what it was that we were eating… It was something awfully fancy, at any rate. I would've preferred a good burger and some fries, but I haven't had that since I came here. Oh, the woes of being _sophisticated_!

"Did you enjoy your time at the kendo competition, Chiyo?" my grandfather asked as he took a bite of his… well, whatever it was that we were eating.

Haruki snickered. I glared at him and answered, "It was interesting. I'd prefer to watch a soccer or rugby match though."

"Did anything interesting happen? I noticed that you disappeared for a long while…" Kyoya raised his eyebrow when our grandfather said this.

"No, not in particular," I replied without looking up from my plate. Haruki snickered some more.

"Haruki, do you care to let everyone else know what is so funny so we can _all_ have a good laugh?" Grandfather's voice was stern.

"Why don't you ask _Chiyo_?" he said with a vicious snicker.

Everyone looked at me expectantly. "I have no idea what he's talking about," I said monotonously. "That boy's on crack."

"Oh, is my phone on crack too?" he said, holding up his phone. On the screen was a picture of Takashi and I in the janitors' closet. I had forgotten that he had gotten a picture of that.

"Hey! No phones at the table!" I yelled in vain. It was too late, Kyoya had already seen it.

"Chiyo," Kyoya held me in a frigid glare. "What did you and I talk about a few days ago?" His voice was suffocating me.

"Excuse me; I have to go be bulimic now!" I called, dashing out of that room and heading to mine, locking the door. I was breathing hard. This was it; I was really going to die this time.

When I sat down, it felt like there was something in my back pocket. I reached back and pulled out a scrap of paper with a number on it.

"_Call me,"_ it read.

I dialed the number quickly and carefully and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" a familiar deep voice said on the other line.

"Takashi! Kyoya knows!" I blurted.

"Huh? Who is this?"

"It's Chiyo!" I was starting to panic a little.

"Chiyo-san? How did you get this number?" he asked slowly.

"W-what? You gave it to me."

"When?"

"Today, at the competition…"

"…"

"Y-you…don't…remember?"

"…"

I fell apart. How can he not remember? How…?

"I'm sorry for bothering you, Senpai," I said, trying to keep it together.

"Chiyo-san, what's wrong?" he asked quietly.

"It doesn't matter anymore," I said as the first tear fell. "I'm sorry for bothering you, Morinozuka-senpai. I'm so very…sorry."

I hung up and let the tears flow.

That was the first time…since my mother died…that I cried myself to sleep.

* * *

Thank you for reading and waiting so long! I'll try to update faster from now on. :) Please review if you liked it and I would give a shoutout to all who favorited, but I'm too lazy to check my stats page... Sorry! Your favoriting-ism...(?) is greatly appreciated. ^_^ I'm also up for any suggestions on what the readers want to happen in this series.


	8. 8: Living On Freaking Mount Olympus

**A/N:** I'm so sorry for never updating. I get distracted and I lose interest. Remember the good old days when I would pump out a chapter like every 5 days? So I'm sorry about that. I'm not too fond of this chapter, but it's sorta informational...This story, to be quite honest, it's dying... I'm running out of ideas and it sort of annoys me that I never realized how Mary-Sueish Chiyo is... It's actually rather repulsive at times. I'm slightly considering either ending it soon or just deleting the whole thing. But I don't know yet... So if you want anything to happen before I end it, please let me know. The more inspiration I get, the more I'll keep going. So please help me out with that. :)

I haven't been doing this enough, but special thanks to my lovely reviewers: chaos0marine and lolishotacon whose comments have assaulted my reviews page! :D You are awesome! And also some new reviewers (I think): The'Masked'ButterflyMaster (You are one of the few reviewers who knew what was going on! It made me happy!), PixieStixys (It wasn't exactly soon, but I updated!), UnlawfulTears (That sounds quite delicious, I must say. You talk to Broken Glass Walker alot, right?), and Broken Glass Walker (Lex, you got me all excited because I had a new review and then it was like, "Oh. It's Lex. Dang it..." ;P)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. If I did, I would spike the tea... Because I want to see them all drunk. It would either be _really _funny or _really_ bad... :)

* * *

"Hey, Commoner!" one of the twins yelled as I came into the classroom. I ignored him and slumped into a seat as far away as I could manage. I didn't want to deal with anyone and I didn't want to be confronted. I didn't even want to get out of bed today, which is normal, but it was even _worse_ today! I even tried to convince my grandfather that I had the Bubonic Plague, but he was a doctor, so that didn't go over the way I had hoped…

At least I dragged myself out of bed early enough so I could walk to school. I avoided seeing Kyoya for a while. Now if only I could avoid the rest of the world as easily.

"Good morning, Chiyo," Haruhi said as she came up to my desk with a worried look on her face.

"Hi, Haruhi," I managed to mumble.

"Hey, Commoner! Why are you sitting all the way over here?" Hikaru asked me as he and his brother assaulted my personal bubble space. I glared up at them to start with, but I was so sleep-deprived, that I gave up on that and just slumped back again.

"What's the matter, Commoner? You look tired." Kaoru said putting on a devilish smile.

"Perhaps making out with Mori-senpai in that closet wore her out," Hikaru accused. Their demonic gaze bore through me. I gasped and my eyes grew wide. _How did they_ _know?! _

"I-I-I d-don't know w-what you're t-talking about…" I managed to stutter that much out as I tried to avoid their eyes.

"Then why are you trying to avoid us?"

"I d-don't know w-what you're talking about," I said with a bit more firmness in my voice.

"Aw… Look, Kaoru, she's trying to deny it."

"If you don't know what we're talking about, then why are you getting so red?"

"Just leave her alone," Haruhi said. The twins ignored her.

"What's the matter, are you ashamed to be Mori-senpai's lover?" they asked together, towering over me.

I started stuttering again and before I knew it, I was running out of the classroom with tears streaming down my face. My mind was a total blur. I didn't know where I was going, but all I knew was that I had to get away from there.

In my blind fury, I ran into a wall. It wasn't until I shifted my gaze upward that I realized that it wasn't a wall at all. "Chiyo-san? What's wrong?" I tried to run away again. This was the very last person I wanted to see right then except for maybe Kyoya.

"N-nothing…" was all I could say in reply as I tried to pull away from Takashi. He held my shoulders, preventing me from leaving.

His face was that of concern and disbelief. "It's not _nothing_. What is wrong?"

The tears kept falling. _How could he not know?! This is his fault! How can he not remember anything that happened? Why?_ "It's nothing!" I said hoarsely. "It's nothing…"

"Chi-chan? Takashi, what's wrong with Chi-chan?" I turned to see Hunny and his stuffed bunny rabbit walking up to us.

"Mitsukuni… She won't say," Takashi replied. He looked a little sad for some reason.

"Don't worry, Takashi! Usa-chan and I will take Chi-chan to get some cake! She'll feel better then," Hunny exclaimed as he took my hand and lead me to Music Room 3. It was empty because everyone else was in class. For some reason, I felt like the druggies who would skip class to go take a smoke in the bathrooms…

Except I was skipping class for cake…

I guess that makes it better somehow.

Once we were in the room, Hunny lead me to a table, brought me a strawberry cake, and put his Usa-chan in my arms. By then, my tears had stopped and I was just sniveling.

"I know what happened, Chi-chan…The only one who doesn't know is Takashi," he said as he sat across from me with a piece of chocolate cake.

"I-I don't understand, Hunny-senpai. How could he just forget everything?"

"Takashi, well, he becomes outgoing when he's sleepy. And when he wakes up again, he doesn't remember anything. It's not his fault, it's just the way he is," Hunny explained.

"Does he have a split personality or something?" I demanded.

"Not exactly… You see, whatever Takashi says when he's sleepy, he still means it. He's the same person; he's just a little more outgoing. He can't change who he is, just how he acts," he replied with a cute smile. "So whatever he said and when he kissed you, Chi-chan, those feelings are real. It's just that normal Takashi doesn't act on his feelings nearly as much as when he's sleepy." I stared at the small third year who was sitting in front of me.

This story was possibly the most illogical I'd ever heard. But, for some reason, I wanted more than anything for it all to be true.

"What should I do, Hunny-senpai? Even if he really _does_ fell that way, it's not like I can confront him about it. He can't even remember what happened! And I don't know what to do about the rest of the hosts… The twins have shown me no mercy, and Kyoya will be far worse."

"Don't worry about it, Chi-chan. Usa-chan and I will take care of it!" Hunny said with a grin.

"Hey, Hunny-senpai? Why are you calling me Chi-chan all of a sudden? You usually call me Chiyo-chan…" It really didn't matter, I was just curious.

"Well…I couldn't decide whether to call you Chi-chan or Yo-chan, but I decided which one to use today! Isn't it cute?" he said with an adorable little giggle. I couldn't help but smile. I think Hunny could make even someone in agony smile.

"Yeah, I like it."

Hunny gave another giggle before saying, "Well, we should probably get back to class, huh?"

"I guess we should…" I sighed as I took one last bite of cake.

"You could stay here for a little while, if you want."

"No, it's okay. The sooner I face the twins, the better," I replied with a small smile, handing him his stuffed pink bunny rabbit.

"Okay! Are you coming to the club tonight, Chi-chan?" he asked as he happily hopped around.

I got up and headed to the door with him. "I don't know, Hunny-senpai… Probably not, though…" Hunny's face fell a bit, but he soon got over it.

I walked back into my classroom and closed the door behind me. "So the Commoner returns!" the twins exclaimed mockingly.

"Did you have a nice cry, Commoner?" the one, who I assumed was Hikaru asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked in a disinterested tone. I sounded like a female version of Kyoya… That, made me die a little inside.

"Well, you did run out of the room crying…" Kaoru pointed out with an evil grin.

"Crying? What the hell are you talking about?" I tried my best to distract them until I could think of something actually believable. Wait…I got it!

"Oh! You thought I was _crying_? My contacts were slipping. My grandfather just got me a more expensive brand, so I'm not used to them yet…"

Yes, I know that it was a stupid excuse. And yes, I know that I don't have contacts. I do have reading glasses, but I _never_ wear them. It was just the only excuse I could think up on the spot!

"We didn't know that you had contacts…" The twins' tone was accusing for some reason.

"I don't wear them often because I always wake up late and forget to put them in," I said in a tone that suggested annoyance. For once, I was really grateful to the acting classes that my mother and father put me through a few years ago. I guess they never thought that acting could help me become a master liar. Now if only those six years of ballet classes could help me out sometime…

"Well then why don't you prove it and show us your contact?" They are weird. Normal people don't demand to see someone's contact to prove that they're nearsighted or farsighted. But I guess the Hitachiin twins are pretty twisted…

"I took them out because they were bugging me. And one sort of fell down the sink…" I was actually surprised at how good a liar I had become. It was sort of frightening, but still liberating.

They eventually gave up and I was left alone. I'm so glad that they have short attention spans. I don't know how I would've gotten through high school if they were more persistent. Now if only Kyoya was so easily deceived and avoided…

_Then, life would like living on freaking Mount Olympus_, I thought as I walked out of the classroom and down the hallway after school. And, as always, I wasn't looking where I was going.

"Ow! Watch it…" My words died as my gaze traveled upward a few inches.

"Chiyo," was all he said as his glare paralyzed me. I managed to stay stone-faced and tried to look indifferent.

"Kyoya," I said, gulping.

"We need to talk, Chiyo," he said venomously.

_If only I could've avoided him, I could've been hanging out with Zeusey up on Mount Olympus_, I thought, sort of scolding myself._ But right now, it's looking more like I'll be hanging out with Hades and the gang of departed souls. Let's be optimistic for once…Yeah, I'm sure they have some __**wild**__ parties…At least I have __**something**__ to look forward to._


	9. 9: Maybe Hank Will Bail You Out

**A/N:** Hey, I actually updated. Sorry it took so long... I'm just getting bored with this story I guess.... But I'll brave through it just for you guys. :) Sorry if this chapter sucks. I haven't written in Chiyo's voice for a while, so it may be a bit rusty. *sweatdrop* I don't know how long I'm going to keep this story going, so I just need random ideas to get things going. Like moonytheloony's idea about randomly inserting a Shetland Pony into the story. Just stuff like that helps. :) So thanks for reading this fic. Sorry if it sucks.

**Special Thanks to the Reviewers:** Lex (see? I updated.), chaos0marine (See? I updated. Not soon. But still.), lolishotacon (The ballet thing could work out for a host theme... Thanks for the idea!), moonytheloony (I promised you a Shetland Pony, did I not? :)), chocolatemud (Now you get to see what happens next!), Shadowess 88 (You are awesome. Enough said. :)), KageNoNeko (You're lucky, you didn't have to wait as long as the others. ;)), mattjesse (I love Aram! He's so cute! ^^), wjulietfan29 (Thank you! I'll do my best!).

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. If I did, we would all go on a field trip to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Just to be awesome. ^^

* * *

Kyoya pulled me into an empty classroom down the hall. I sat down in the first desk I came to while Kyoya stood in front of me. His face was collected, but his eyes were fiery.

"I'm sensing some déjà vu here…" I said, recalling our last _chat_ in the limo. He just glared back at me. I decided to break the silence, "Did you know that the French don't have a word for déjà vu?"

"Chiyo," he said, voice shaking, "How the hell could you let that happen?"

"Do you think I _planned _that? Do you honestly think that my goal in life was to get stuck in a closet with Morinozuka-senpai?"

"I see that you're no longer calling him by his first name anymore."

I didn't know what to say to that really. What could _anyone_ say to that? "Why are you even doing this Kyoya? You've already won. Takashi Morinozuka remembers nothing of what happened in that closet. That's it. I've learned my lesson. I've given up meddling in your Host Club. I don't want something like that to happen again, so I'll cut all ties with the Host Club." Kyoya just looked at me in surprise. "What's the matter? Isn't that what you wanted?"

"I did want to know your side of the story, but I wasn't expecting for you to quit being around the Host Club so easily…"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't _expect_ so little out of people. If you just wanted my side of the story, what was with the glaring and the Mr.-Boss-Man voice?" I challenged.

"It was necessary to be sure you were telling the truth. And, to be perfectly honest, I know how much it annoys you."

"…It wasn't necessary. I don't understand why you aren't happier than this. Don't you realize that you don't have to force me to leave?"

"What makes you think you're leaving?"

"…I'm not following…"

"Your presence has raised Mori-senpai's spirits to an extent, making him more popular with the ladies."

"So you want me to stay because _you're_ gaining something, not because I'm _awesome_ company?" I asked dryly.

"It's not so much that I gain something as I'll lose something if you _don't_ stay. And you know better than anyone, Chiyo, how I hate to lose _anything_."

"Okay, so you want me to stay around the Host Club because you'll be getting a profit… So you want me to be all chummy with Morinozuka-senpai?" I asked confused.

"Not exactly. My profits require you to be in a _general proximity_ with Mori-senpai. As much as I would like for you to stay away from him, the gain here outweighs _almost_ everything else. So, as of today, you are to be the Host Club's dog in order to assure that you remain in said general proximity without over-stepping your limits."

I stared at him. "You are far too sadistic for that to be your only reason for making me your club's dog."

"You're right. After Haruhi became a host, the duties have become neglected. And also, it would greatly amuse me to see you being at the club's beck and call for all the trouble you have caused me these past few days." That smug look on his face was disturbing.

"You sick, sadistic, little…"

"Oh, and as an added punishment, you are required to cosplay along with the club."

"…For what reason?" I growled.

"It would amuse me," he said with an evil smile.

My eye twitched in annoyance. _Damn rich, scheming, little asshole… _

"Well, Chiyo, your first job as our dog is to go buy us some instant coffee."

"Instant coffee? Why would _you,_ of all people, want instant coffee when you could buy imported?"

"It's a Host Club favorite. It doesn't matter which brand you get, just make sure you get several containers," he said as he handed me a credit card and exited the room.

I remained seated for a few minutes before going out the doors and into the warm sunshine. If it wasn't for the sun, it would be rather cold outside. It was late fall and the wind was bitter (much like Kyoya), but the sun made it bearable. I walked on the sidewalk until I noticed that a limo was following me. I stopped as it pulled up to ask the driver what the hell his problem was and why he was following me. But I recognized the face of one of Kyoya's servant/private team guys in the driver's seat.

"Excuse me, Hoshi-san, but both your grandfather and Master Kyoya have instructed me to never allow you to walk anywhere. Your grandfather was quite upset when he discovered that you walked to school this morning…" I just looked at him and laughed. Grandfather would do that. He probably thinks that I'm disgracing the family somehow by walking places. Kyoya's servant-guy looked nervous and said, "But please, Hoshi-san, will you get in the car? I have no desire to anger your grandfather."

I sighed deeply before climbing into the passenger side of the car. He looked surprised at this. (Not that it was at all easy to read his facial expression with his dark sunglasses on, but still.) "What? Doesn't Kyoya ever sit with you up front?" I asked bluntly.

"No, no he doesn't." He looked a mixture of being comfortable, but uneasy.

I leaned over a bit towards him. "What's wrong? You're Tachibana, right? Do you _want_ me to move to the back? Because I totally will if you're really want me to."

"No, it's fine. Forgive me for getting uneasy. It's not often that an employer sits up front for no reason."

"Why are you apologizing? It's my fault for not realizing that I over-stepped my bounds as a damn rich kid." I saw a smile cross his lips for a moment before he went straight-faced again. "You can smile, you know. It's not illegal yet."

"Yes, I'm sorry, Hoshi-san."

"You don't actually have to talk to me like I'm the queen of England. I'm only sixteen for God's sake and it honestly wouldn't matter to me if you called me Chi-chan like Hunny-senpai does. You don't have to treat me the way you're forced to treat that _damn Kyoya_." My voice was laced with slight disgust at the thought of my sadistic cousin.

Tachibana seemed to find this funny. "You have very American views, Chiyo-san."

"See that's more like it! But how are my views American?"

"Even _employees_ of your wealthy family are treated equal to everyone else you meet."

"That's not being American, Tachibana-san. That's being a descent person." I paused for a long while and added, "So are those sunglasses like a required part of the uniform of Kyoya's private team, or do you three just feel cool wearing matching sunglasses everywhere?"

_**~Approximately 22 Minutes and 31 Seconds Later…~**_

Okay, so I sorta fucked up on that one… It really wasn't my fault… I just hadn't been to a grocery store in a while; let alone a Japanese grocery store… I won't go into detail, mostly because I'd rather forget about my little episode in the Pocky isle.

The security-guy sat across from me and looked at me like I was a juvenile delinquent. While I am juvenile, I most certainly am not a delinquent. I didn't steal anything, so why was he looking at me with such distaste?

"Excuse me, but may I leave now?" I asked quietly, cowering away from the man's stocky frame.

He just stared at me in silence. Then he got a message on his radio. I couldn't hear what the other person was saying, so all I heard was, "Yeah. Uh-huh. Right now? Yes, sir."

He stared at me for a bit longer before saying in a deep voice, "It seems that someone is here for you."

"Chiyo," Kyoya said in a stern voice as he walked in the room.

I cracked up laughing! I couldn't help it! You should've seen him! Kyoya was in worn blue jeans, leather chaps, a red and blue Old Western-style shirt, cowboy boots with spurs, and a cowboy hat and bandana to complete the look. I had _never_ seen my uptight cousin in such a getup. To me, Kyoya was far too careful to make a successful cowboy. It did sort of make my day to see him attempt it though.

"Would you care to tell me what the _hell_ is so _funny_?" His boot made a drumming noise as he tapped his foot in agitation.

I was still dying from laughter. "No, no…It's an inside joke," I said gasping.

"With whom?" he was steaming.

I pointed at the guard. "With Hank over here; duh." Of course, the guard was a Japanese man and I don't think his name was really Hank.

"Oh then, perhaps your new buddy, _Hank_ will bail you out of here, Chiyo."

I looked from Kyoya to "Hank". I don't think that "Hank" would give me a ride home…

On our way out, Kyoya gave me a _massive_ lecture about how I'm shaming the family by doing such reckless things.

Now here comes the weird part.

There was a _horse_ parked outside the automatic door of the store.

And next to that horse were seven other ones of various breeds and colors, all except one carrying a member of the Host Club in cowboy outfits.

Kyoya had stridden up to his grey Arabian, named Maysa, according to the nameplate on her bridle, and mounted her gracefully.

The Host Club greeted me and showed me which horse _I_ would be riding back. …Kyoya appointed me the only Mustang of the bunch. He was pure white except for the mark on his forehead. The black marking almost looked like a star. Well, if you squinted a little bit anyway.

Everyone looked at me weird when I didn't make any move to go near the pretty horse.

"What's wrong, Commoner? Don't you like Dominic?" The twins asked in unison.

"I-It's not that…" I said quietly, staring the horse in his unblinking black eyes. "I've just never been so close to a horse before…They're _big_."

The twins burst out laughing. "You mean to say that you have traveled the world and speak three different languages, but you have _never_ been close to a _horse_?!" I glared at them, but they were too amused to notice. I guess it _was_ sort of funny. But even though I've never been near one, I still know quite a bit about horse breeds and stuff, so I should get props for that. I was one obsessed little child…

As I was glaring, I didn't notice the huge shadow that fell over me from behind. I turned and went wide eyed when I discovered that the thing pulling on my shirt was a fricking huge Clydesdale! He was a black roan with a white face and legs. His nameplate read, "Finnean." Takashi walked up, took the reins, and pulled Finnean away from me and my shirt.

I was looking down during that time. I just couldn't look into those grey eyes again after what happened.

Over the next few minutes, the twins and Hunny would help me get onto Dominic and show me how to "drive him", as Hikaru said. Once I was secure, Hunny went to his honey-colored Shetland Pony, (who coincidentally was also named Honey), and the twins went to their nearly identical Pintos named Santana and Orlando.

Once everyone was ready, Tamaki, from on top of his Palomino yelled, "High-Ho, Camille!" We all snickered when the horse just stood there and shook her mane. "Come on, girl," he said to her with an embarrassed face. "You're making me look bad in front of my daughter!"

"I'm not your daughter, Senpai!" Haruhi called from atop of her dark brown Thoroughbred.

They bickered most of the way back to school. There were no mishaps going back. Kyoya was done yelling at me, no one died, the horses didn't kill anyone… I almost fell off the horse a few times though, but I think I eventually got the hang of it…sort of.

Once we got back, Kyoya made me change into Western wear before joining everyone else outside.

As I made my way out to the newly built "pasture", Kyoya stalked over to me, looking pissed.

"What is it, Ky?" I said, annoyed with him already.

"Chiyo," he said evenly, keeping his temper inside, "where is the instant coffee I _specifically _sent you to get?"

"…………………………._**SHIT!!!!!**_"

* * *

Anyway, I wanted to start another Ouran serial story so that I don't get completely bored with this one again and maybe everyone won't hate me. I actually have a plot thought out this time with an ending and everything! (That's big for me.) I just need a pairing. I'll go by majority vote. Who should be paired with !-- /* Style Definitions */ , , {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} 1 {page:Section1;} -- Arisu Hirohata? Tamaki? Kyoya? Mori? Kaoru? Hikaru? Hunny? YOU DECIDE. ...please? Once I get a pairing, I'll probably start immediately. I hope you all will follow the new story. ^^


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